Pex plumbing throughout home, a couple faucets inside the home froze but we were very fortunate nothing broke. Having these cold snaps got me to thinking, I'm thinking to buy a crimper and some random spare parts to have them available in a pinch if I need to do any spot repairs in the future (used to do this with copper and pvc before the new home and it came in very useful at times). My question is, does this sound like overkill for pex? If not, what size and items should I focus on? My guess is most failures happen at the joints so was thinking of getting some elbows, tees, couplings, and maybe a few feet of pex. Can't see sizing since it's all insulated in attic but was thinking to grab 1/2" and 3/4". This sound about right?

Another idea is to buy a sharkbite (pex to pvc) in 1/2, 3/4, and 1". Put a PVC pipe and cap on the PVC side. Now if you get a leak, you can just cut the pex and cap it quickly. You would also want to buy a cutter.

The other stuff is all a very good idea. The question is are you looking to stop the water or fix the problem.

Edit to add: I agree on sharkbite fittings for the long term, but they are great for temporary use.

Invest in the crimper. There are two types copper rings and SS clamps.

I bought the clamp tool. Not sure if there is a functional difference.

I'll never use the push on "Sharkbite" fittings.

Anyone have a good expansion tool they recommend for PEX A?

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Invest in the crimper. There are two types copper rings and SS clamps.

I bought the clamp tool. Not sure if there is a functional difference.

I'll never use the push on "Sharkbite" fittings.

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The biggest difference is you can use a ring cutter to remove copper crimp rings if you need to remove it. The SS cinch rings have to be "peeled" off, which is a PITA. The SS cinch tool is good for installation is a tight space.

Ryan
I've seen a twist off tool for the SS clamps but I've never used it. Apparently it's got a 1/2" socket drive and can be put on an impact. Generally though even for the copper rings the removal videos I've seen show cutting the pipe then removing the ring to reuse the fitting.

Along these lines of thought i suppose if I were saving/reusing several fittings a day then there are certainly some cost savings to realize. If I'm a DIYer, is there really a benefit?

From a DIYer standpoint, I think the bigger benefit is when you have to add a new fitting and it doesn't work with the current route. For example, swapping an elbow for a tee without adding a bunch of couplings, or in a tight spot that doesn't allow for a coupling. It can get pretty busy very quickly in a tight spot if you can't cut the PEX off of an existing fitting. Plus, it doesn't take much to pay for the cost of the tool - if you save one PEX ball valve, it's about paid for itself.

A second benefit to the copper rings is that you can use a Go/No Go gauge to verify proper install of the ring - just an added quality check. I'm not familiar with a way to verify the clamps.

Both tools have some benefits, though.

They've got a Go/NoGo guage as well.

Full disclosure, I've done my first work with PEX (my home was fully re-piped before I bought it) just last month. The sum total of my experience is rebuilding the crossover where the city water comes up from the ground and into the house.

The pipe-wrap had degraded and the PEX-A expansion ring was cracked from UV degredation. I took that time to redo a spigot that was just stuck on the side of the house and a bypass line that was Tee'd off to go around the corner of the house for a toilet. I get why they did the toilet we way they did. With the re-pipe it was easier to go through an exterior wall than come down from a 2nd story attic. Made that whole corner though much cleaner.

Cool - I'll check that out.

How did you re-do your spigot? I'm not quite following your description. I've wanted to re-pipe and add a couple of spigots from drop downs in the attic. It'd allow me to isolate them from a future softener and to isolate them with a valve in the winter.

WHole area over there is a bit of a hot mess as there's also a whole home water filter in the mix. City line comes out of the ground and runs over to the filter. From there the PVC came back to a point a couple inches above where the city line came out of the ground. I'm guessing this was just plumbed into what was once a straight shot out of the ground.





That double Tee... The top one was a short run to a spigot that was on the brick with crappy anchors that had already pulled out. The lower run goes into a flower bed on the front side of the house and re-emerges where it punches through the wall and straight into the back of a toilet. UV degradation caused one of thee expansion fittings to split and that Tee had a very small leak. I caught it early and stripped the rest of the foam back.

The lines in the above photos that are still wrapped are the sprinkler system PVB. I've cut the PVB off, have installed a shutoff, and can just take the whole thing inside using threaded unions.

Where I used to have a 90* going into the PEX line is now a Tee. I spliced in all new PEX from just below where it enters the wall. The spigot is now anchored in the flowerbed. The run to the toilet taps into the Pex line in the flowerbed off of the bottom of that sprinkler riser. The riser has a couple of bricks underneath it and 3 pieces of rebar driven close to the riser and secured with SS hose clamps so none of that assembly can wiggle.

Got it - not at all what I pictured. Ha! Thanks.

OP - wouldn't hurt to keep a couple of 5 foot sticks of Pex line on hand either.

I'll have to look whether I have pex a or pex b. I'm completely new to pex as none of my homes have ever had it until now.

Seeing different fitting and termination options with pex, can I just pick one and go or do I really need to match pexa vs pexb and fittings/crimping types?

I ask because I'm fairly certain the fittings I remember seeing didn't look like crimps, if I remember correctly they were yellow rings around each joint. I'll have to go peel back some insulation and look around but those expanding tools look way more expensive than crimpers for a Diy guy.

I have the same - I have PEX a uponor with fittings that look like this. I need one of those expanding tools.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Milwaukee-M12-FUEL-ProPEX-Expander-Tool-with-1-2-in-1-in-RAPID-SEAL-ProPEX-Expander-Heads-2532-20/314942042



Or you can buy a manual one for about $150 with all 3 expanders or around $100 if you only need the expansion tool and a 1/2" expander